The Early Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
This page chronicles the voyages of the from its launch in 2245, under the captaincies of Captains Robert April and Christopher Pike, until the ship was transferred to the command of Captain James T. Kirk in 2264. 2245 Construction of the Enterprise was completed by early 2245, and the Enterprise was officially launched on July 4th 2245 by Federation President Samuel Solomon Qasr, and attended by former President Jonathan Archer, who had been the commander of the United Earth ship Enterprise nearly a century earlier. Following the launch ceremony, the Enterprise began shakedown cruises under the command of Captain April. ( ) 2246 The shakedown cruises went well and the Enterprise was finally commissioned on January 3rd 2246 and began its first five-year mission of exploration. ( ) In October, the Enterprise was the first Federation ship to reach Tarsus IV with food and supplies for the famine-stricken colony; however, interference from the Klingons meant that the Enterprise was too late to stop the execution of 4,000 colonists at the hands of Kodos the Executioner. ( ) 2247 2248 2249 In 2249, the Enterprise transported George Samuel Kirk, Sr. and his 16-year-old son James T. Kirk to a newly discovered archeaological site on the planet Faramond. ( ) 2251 The Enterprise returned from its first successful five-year mission in January 2251, and Captain April was promoted to commodore. April recommended that Christopher Pike, who at that time commanded the , would be a logical replacement. ( }} and ) The Enterprise began its second five-year mission under the command of Captain Pike in mid-2251. 2252 2253 Just prior to beginning a long term survey of the Pathiad Nebulatae the Enterprise's science officer was struck down with a bout of virillian toxic fever. At the recommendation of Robert April, Pike enlisted the then Cadet Spock to fill the role giving him the rank of acting ensign. ( ) :These events are said to have taken place two years into Pike's command. 2254 Stardate 2252.34: The Enterprise is diverted from her scheduled mission to the Marrat system to investigate a series disappearances: a number of small ships had been found adrift, devoid of their crews. With no leads, the Enterprise was sent in to act as bait in the hope of finding out what was going on. The culprit soon revealed itself, a huge organic starship from a distant and lost alien race; the Ngultor. The Ngultor used an energy discharge to knock out the crew, sampling them using invasive surgery to take material from the base of the entire crew's brain stems. Forty-nine minutes later, the crew reawakened to find themselves in the tentacled grip of the Ngultor ship with Captain Pike missing and few systems functioning. Enterprise s malfunctions turned out to be the result of a Ngultor organic virus, a cure for which was developed by Doctor Boyce, Nurse Charlotti and Spock. Meanwhile Number One led a landing party to retrieve Captain Pike from the Ngultor. As the Enterprise's systems came back online, the landing party, with Pike, were quickly retrieved with the transporter. Whilst in captivity Pike learned of the Ngultor's plans to harvest the biological material (the people) of what was to them a newly discovered region of space. Faced with little alternative in protecting the people of the Federation the Enterprise destroyed the Ngultor ship, preventing it returning home to bring more Ngultor for the harvest. The mystery solved, the Enterprise continued on her mission to the Merrat system. ( ) Stardate 2378.1: The Enterprise arrived in the Marrat Nebula just in time to drive off a brigand of criminals attacking Starbase 13. After sending personnel to assist in repairs and establish a triage centre for the stations personal, the Enterprise made her way to the Pharos siteworld. The site of Project Pharos, the Starfleet scheme which provoked the local rogue elements into attacking Starbase 13. At Pharos, the Enterprise in orbit and a landing party below both came under attack from the Klingons. After a brief stand off with the Klingon Commander Kaaj, who was convinced the Federation's actions in the region were the first step in a Federation expansion, the Enterprise was almost crippled by Kaaj's highly effective tactics. Captain Pike took a risky course of action and fired on the planet below. Pharos' rich dilithium deposits ignited creating a galactic beacon and making the planet a far less valuable prize for the Klingons who soon departed upon detecting Federation reinforcements approaching. The Enterprise returned to Starbase 13 to pick up her personnel before continuing to her next destination. ( ) Stardate 2385.7: The Enterprise s next port of call was Rigel VII to oversee the planets admission into the United Federation of Planets. The Enterprise arrived in time to witness the Rigellian Festival of Light and for the crew to be the first offworlders to do so in centuries. The visit also afforded the crew an opportunity for shore leave. Unfortunately factions of the government were not enthusiastic about the planet joining the Federation and incited an uprising in the Rigellian warrior caste; the Kaylar. The Enterprise uncontactable thanks to jamming field, the crew were unable to call for help, and three were killed in the Kaylar attacks including Yeoman Cusack, killed shortly after disabling the jamming signal. Security teams were soon able to bring the coup to an end, but seven crewmen were injured. The Enterprise departed shortly after to take on replacement crew and make use of the medical facilities at Vega colony. ( ) En-route the dead were collected, and a new yeoman delivered, from the . ( ) Before reaching Vega, the Enterprise received a distress call from the in the Talos star group and changed course to render aid to the survivors of the downed ship. The distress call was in fact a trap set by the native Talosians, who kidnapped some of the Enterprise crew; however they were later able to escape and the incident resulted in General Order 7 which forbid contact with the Talosians. ( ) Stardate 2396.6: The Enterprise was sent to Darien 224 to search for the , which was surveying the system but disappeared six weeks prior. The Enterprise soon found the Cortez, under command of violent Vulcans from a lost colony on the planetoid. The Starfleet presence stirred political tensions between the Vulcans and the Enterprise was attacked by the Cortez armed with an ancient Vulcan weapon, the Tol par-doj. A single shot from the weapon caused massive system failure on the ship and the Vulcans sent boarding parties to try and capture the Enterprise. The Enterprise crew succeeded in repelling the Vulcans but at the cost of the lives of five crew people and injuries to twenty-nine others. Shortly after, the Cortez was destroyed by another Vulcan weapon fired from the planetoid. Captain Pike then ordered the Enterprise into the planetoid's atmosphere to rescue a landing party, unable to beam them up due to atmospheric interference before the planet is destroyed by the very same Vulcan weapon that fired on the Cortez. ( }}) Following the incident the Enterprise spent a week at Deep Space Station K-12 under going repairs. ( ) While at K-12 Captain Pike received a transmission informing him his father was ill and left on the shuttlecraft ''Icarus'' to visit his father on Earth. Unfortunately the transmission had been faked by the Klingon Kaaj to try and capture Pike and the Icarus was soon attacked, crash-landing on the planet Prairie. At K-12 the Enterprise crew also discovered the fakery but were unable to track the source of the transmission, however, to Pike's good fortune the Enterprise received a coded transmission revealing Pike's location and the Enterprise departed on a rescue mission. The Enterprise arrived at Prairie just in time to interrupt the 's orbital bombardment, just as Pike was about to be incinerated in the Klingons' phaser fire. Having been dealt significant damage by the surprise arrival of the Enterprise the Varchas retreated, leaving the Enterprise to render medical aid to those affected by the Klingon attacks and help suppress crop fires. The Enterprise left Prairie with an additional passenger, Claire Thorn, a former Starfleet officer who decided to leave Prairie after the Klingon attacks to return to Starfleet. ( ) Adventures at a Glance 2246 * Enterprise Logs: "Though Hell Should Bar the Way" (TOS short story) 2248 * Crisis on Vulcan (TOS novel) 2249 * Best Destiny (TOS novel) (Backstory) 2253 * (TOS novel) * Alien Spotlight: Vulcans (TOS comic) 2254 * "Flesh of My Flesh" (EV comic) * "The Fires of Pharos" (EV comic) * "Our Dearest Blood" (EV comic) * "Nor Iron Bars a Cage" (EV comic) * "The Cage" (TOS episode) * The Rift: "First Contact" (TOS novel) * Enterprise Logs: "Conflicting Natures" (TOS short story) * "Cloak and Dagger" (EV comic) * "The Flat, Gold Forever" (EV comic) * "Immortal Wounds" (EV comic) * "One of a Kind" (EV comic) * "The Fallen}}" (EV comic) * "Futures, Part One" (EV comic) * "Future Tense" (EV comic) * "Past Imperfect" (EV comic) * "Now and Then" (EV comic) * "Thanatos}}" (EV comic) * "Nemesis}}" (EV comic) 2255 * The Captain's Table: Where Sea Meets Sky (TOS novel) (Backstory) * "To Walk the Night" (TOS comic) The Early Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)